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Fire smoke coming from California Blazes get blame for hazy skies As fire danger ratcheted back up to extreme in Jackson and Josephine counties Thursday, thick, gray smoke from several large wildfires in Northern California clogged the skies above the Rogue Valley. "It's got to be coming out of California," said Phil Cardin, a dispatch coordinator with the Rogue River National Forest. "There's nothing that big burning around here." The largest fire near the Rogue Valley is the Yellow Pine Complex in the Modoc National Forest near Tulelake, Calif., just south of Klamath Falls. That blaze had swelled to more than 11,500 acres burning mostly on rangeland Thursday. Another fire in the Klamath National Forest had burned 300 acres. Several other fires burned in Northern California, including 1,300 acres blazing in Shasta and Trinity counties near Redding, as well as a 4,000-acre fire in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. In all, at least a dozen major fires involving grass, brush and timber were burning in Northern California. Besides those already mentioned, clusters of fires in Tehama and Glenn counties had burned a total 24,000 acres; in Butte County, 22,000 acres; and in the Lassen National Forest, hundreds of acres. Two separate clusters of fires on the Plumas National Forest had together burned more than 6,000 acres. Thick smoke from the fires blanketed Reno, Nev., and cities in California's Central Valley, including Sacramento, where authorities warned residents to avoid unnecessary outdoor activity. Meteorologist Eric Platt of the National Weather Service in Medford said a very weak wind flow aloft is causing a stagnant atmosphere above the Rogue Valley, meaning the smoke is not dissipating at higher altitudes. Platt said the smoke that's visible locally is coming from several fires that are fairly close together and are putting out a lot of smoke. The smoke, coupled with the weather conditions, has made for hazy skies over Medford. "It's probably a combination from all of them," Platt said. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA